Persona BLEACHED 2: Part 3
Chapter 3: Chariot's Requiem August 13, 2028 "..." The sun was not to rise for a few hours. Kenji stared intently into the mirror. Voices echoed in his head, as he stared at his bruised face. "Again, Kenneth. Again until it's perfect." "*whip*" "Why are you obsessed with that sword, Kenneth?" "*whip*" "Souls that ugly don't get fixed in one day." "*whip*" "...my soul is...ugly?" Kenji pondered. "What that woman said...why I wield the sword..." He shook his head. "Don't be absurd. To indulge in such frivolous matters would help no one. I must be strong...only the strong can rise from the chaff. And yet..." A dark aura began emanating from Kenji. "No...no, you know this isn't right. You know...gh!" he strained in a distorted voice. "What's...happening..." The aura enveloped Kenji, and he vanished. --- Several hours later, Kibō was groggily eating his breakfast. He looked over at the door to Kenji's room. "Even with a black eye he's out training. I really don't get that guy." A moment later, there was a knock at the door. He opened the door to find Barbara standing there holding a laptop. "Good morning. Hope I didn't wake you." she said. "Uhhhhh." He looked at her, hair tied back and clearly wearing sleepwear and slippers. "Did you just run here after waking up?" he asked. "Oh, sorry. I only slept a couple hours. My head's been buzzing since yesterday. And I think you can help me with filling in the blanks." "Well I'm not sure if--" Barbara walked in. "Alright, then." Kibō muttered. "So, The Grinch is already out, I'm guessing?" Barbara asked. "I guess, he was gone when I woke up. Whatever he does in his free time is on him." Kibō answered. "So what are you doing here?" "Well, ever since I spoke with the professor's friend yesterday, I've been really curious about what happened here eight years ago. So I've been doing some digging, and--" "You want to know about what my brother did." "Well, yeah. He was super involved in what happened, right?" "That doesn't mean he told me everything." "I didn't expect that he would. There's just a few things I'm not 100% sure of from the reports..." "So from what I've gathered, your brother was one of the ringleaders of some kind of criminal conspiracy involving a bunch of academy students. Two of his cohorts were murdered under mysterious circumstances, with a number of other murders and assaults coming up around this time. One of those was a classmate of your brother's named--" "Tohru Kubo. The professor's brother." "Right. The thing is, all of these killings and assaults were attributed to a student the reports kept calling 'The Reaper'. And they also mentioned that during this time, right before your brother's allies were killed, they were targeted by a group calling themselves the Shinigami Order. Nobody ever identified who these people were, or who this Reaper was. It's all just so...bizarre. So I--" "Why are you so concerned about all of this?" Kibō asked. "Well, it has a lot to do with our professor. It was her brother that died. A lot of her friends were targeted, directly and otherwise. And after what happened yesterday--" "Look. All I can tell you is that my brother mentioned something weird like that happening back then. I can't speak for the professor or her friends. And frankly, I don't think it's any of your business." "Look. It's all just so weird and bizarre. All I'm doing is--" "What you're DOING is snooping around other peoples' business. What do you think the professor would think about you prying into her personal life? You think she wants to relive that? Or that I want to give my brother's bullshit a second thought?" Kibō had become increasingly agitated. "Hey, come on, I didn't mean anything by it. I just...want to know I can trust everyone..." Barbara said. "Kind of hard when you're snooping around, isn't it? Are you like this with everybody?" Kibō demanded. "Just...stop yelling..." "Heeheeheeheehee...oh dear, Barbara. See what being a nosy busybody gets you?" Barbara's eyes widened. The voice was like her own, but not. "Did you...hear that?" she asked. "Heard what? What are you--" A surge of power could be felt. Energy emanated from Kenji's room. Barbara got up. She approached Kenji's room, almost as if drawn to it. "Hey, what are you doing?" Kibō asked. "That's right, Barbara. Come closer. Lord knows you can't help snooping..." the voice echoed out. She opened the door, and a wave of darkness erupted from the room. It covered the entire room, and by the time it had dissipated, Barbara and Kibō had vanished. Meanwhile, Rin was just waking up. She walked to the kitchen, where Rose was staring intently at her phone. "Morning, sunshine. Something happen?" Rin asked. "Rin. We have a problem." Rose uttered nervously. She showed Rin her phone screen. "I haven't had activity on this app in years. There's Shadow activity. It's coming from...the academy. And they're giving the source as one of your students." Rin looked at the screen. "Palace Source: Kenneth Southgate." "Current Occupants: Kenneth Southgate. Barbara O'Donnell. Kibō Ishimaru." Rin's face turned pale. "Oh, shit." she muttered. --- Kibō's eyes jolted open. He looked around the room. Everything was now shaded red and green. "Is this the room...? Why is it different now?" he wondered. He checked around the dormroom. No sign of Barbara. "Probably wandered off by herself. She really can't help herself..." he grumbled. He peered outside the door before walking out. As he walked through the similarly transformed halls, he took notice of what was different: portraits of shirtless, muscular men lined the walls. Busts of muscular chests were at the end of every hall. "I have SO many questions." he said. Eventually, he reached a door with a flashing lightbulb above it that read "Taping in Progress". Confused, Kibō slowly opened the door and walked inside. The room was pitch black. "Can't see a thing. Who tapes something in complete darkness? Unless it's one of those dumb ghost hunting shows..." he thought. The lights suddenly sprung on. Appearing before Kibō was a newscaster's desk. Sitting behind it was what appeared to be Barbara, dressed in a reporter's garb. Her eyes glowed yellow. "Hello, hello, hello-lo, everyone~! And welcome to another exciting edition of 'Everyone Else's Business'! I'm your host, Barbie O!" Her voice was distorted. "I've got a special treat in store for you all today! I've decided to mix it up a bit. To help explain, here's my lovely guest for the evening, Barbie O!" Rising up from the floor, chained to a chair, was Barbara. Kibō was stunned. "For today's show, instead of me snooping into everyone else's dirty laundry, I've decided that fair is fair and that y'all should know about MY dirty laundry!" "Who...who the heck are you?" Barbara asked. "NOW then, Barbie, let's get down to the nitty gritty! What's your cup size? How many guys have you pictured naked? How can you talk about people being real when your main career aspirations involve pretending to be someone else? Is it cuz you know you're nosy and that if you pretend you're someone else, people might LIKE you?" "Sh-shut up. That's not it at all." "Oh, sweets. There's no point in lying to me. And I thought you hated being fake? I mean, that's why daddy got banned from coaching, right?" Barbara was speechless. "Wha...how do you..." "Keep your napkins close, everyone, cuz Barbie O is about to spill some TEA. Picture this. Daddy O'Donnell coaches the local high school football team for ten years. Mega successful, six seasons without a loss. The best kids all wanna come play for him. Peaches and gravy, right? Except it comes out that Daddy O's been giving his boys some nice freebies to come play for him. That's a big no-no. So Daddy O ends up persona non grata among the coaching ranks. Ten years of winning, poof, gone. And you wanna know who spilled the beans to the school board?" "Why none other than his precocious little girl, Barbie O! So Daddy loses his job, and Barbie has to go live with Mommy cuz Daddy can't stand the sight of her. Hell, twin bro Maxie barely even talks to her for over a year. I mean, you've gotta feel bad. The man that raised you, cheating? If you can't trust your own pa, who can you trust? So now comes the cycle of fact-checking everyone around her, and everyone backing away, cuz who wants to be friends with a nosy snitch? Going to school in Japan felt like the only option, cuz everyone around town got sick of her shit!" Kibō looked floored. "Now then, Barbie..." Barbara's face was blank, almost on the verge of tears. "Answer me this: Was anything that just came out of my mouth a lie?" "...no." Barbara uttered, dejected. "Aww, it's alright. Feels great, being on the receiving end of the tea-spilling, doesn't it? You know how the old saying goes, 'karma's a bitch'. Welp, I've got another one for ya..." The second Barbara stood up, and brought out an axe from seemingly nowhere. "'Snitches get stitches.'" "Hey, knock it off!" Kibō yelled out. "Huh?" Barbara snapped out of her trance. "Pfft, what're you objecting about? You really feel bad for Ms. Fly on the Wall here? Didn't she just barge into your room wanting you to spill the beans on your broski? Seriously, man. You're just another can of worms that needs to be opened. So butt out, and let me take her place." Kibō went silent. "Just another can of worms...that's right...all I am...is some kid related to a criminal. My last name is all I'm good for...heh. Hehehehehe...." "Kibō..." Barbara muttered. "One foot in the funny farm, huh? Ugggh, give me a sec, Barbie. Homeboy needs an attitude adjustment." The second Barbara approached Kibō with the axe. Kibō could only keep up the nervous laughter. "Why are you here?" Kibō broke from his laughter. The voice sounded like a distorted version of his own. "She dragged you into this. Whatever happens is on her, not you. You could just run. It's what Kyohei would do. Leave the poor fools to their own fate. Why not just walk away, and never think of this again?" Kibō snapped out of it long enough to move out of the way from a swing of the axe. He fell to the floor. "Only a swift death awaits if you intervene. You have no reason to be here. It's just more responsibility foisted on you by others. Why don't you just flee?" Kibō slowly rose to his feet. "I'm not Kyohei. I don't have to weasel my way out of trouble. I'm not running...because I don't want to." "...very well. If that is your truest desire, then allow me to offer you this. Let us forge a contract." Kibō's eyes turned yellow. He clutched his head and fell to one knee. "Hey! What's the big idea? You off your meds?" the second Barbara asked. "I am thou, thou art I. You who would risk your life for the sake of others...I offer you my blade. Use it, and cut a path that is yours, and yours alone!" Kibō erupted into a pillar of blue flames. "The hell?!" the second Barbara uttered. Kibō emerged from the fire. "Such a pain!" She swung the axe down, only for it to be blocked. Standing in front of Kibō was a ghostly figure, draped in vermilion hued armor, blocking the axe with a shimmering longsword. "Swat her away, Percival." Kibō said. The knight did as ordered, swinging its blade and sending the duplicate flying, crashing through the wall. Barbara sat in awe. "Dude." she said, stunned. "Percival. Get her out of that thing." The knight swung its blade at the chains, breaking them. "You alright?" Kibō asked. "Y-yeah, but...what is that thing?!" "Well...far as I can tell, it's me. Like, part of me. I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are." The duplicate crawled back up from the rubble. Kibō prepared for another round, but Barbara stopped him. "Let me handle this." she said. She approached her double. "I know what you're trying to do. You're what I think people see, when they see me. Right? I've just been drowning in my own guilt for years. Guilt for doing the right thing, for the horrible wrong of not wanting to be lied to. All I ever wanted was honesty but instead...I get left alone." "How do I know that nobody's gonna stab me in the back someday? Even my own dad can't stand what I did. I want to trust people, but I don't want to be hurt anymore." "You should start with easing into it." Kibō interjected. "If you ask people to tell their life's story right off the bat, that'll just turn them away completely. Being friends with someone means getting to know them over time. It's alright to be curious, but not every talk has to be an interrogation." "Yeah. You're right. I want to get off on the right foot here. I can start by working on being a better friend." The duplicate gave a light smile, and nodded, before vanishing. "I am thou, thou art I...for the quest that is thy life, I shall lend you my wisdom. Let it be thy guiding light, to discern the truth. Neither lies, nor deceit shall inhibit thy will..." Barbara opened her eyes, which briefly flashed yellow. "Thank you...Nimue." "Okay, now that that's over with..." Barbara began. "Where are we? What just happened?" She looked at Kibō. "Oh, sorry. After saying I was gonna cut down on the questions..." "Nah, honestly, I think it's justified now. That wave of darkness, the dorm looking so weird, that other you...and these spirits. All that weird stuff Kyohei mentioned...suddenly it's not so weird." Kibō answered. "Kibō! Barbara! There you are!" The two turned to see Rin, armed with an ornate lance, and Rose standing there. "Oh, thank goodness. I was scared to death for you two." Rin said. "Professor?! And Ms. Rose? What are you doing here?" Barbara asked. "I got an alert on my phone about the activity in your dorm. We raced over as quickly as we could." Rose explained. "Whoa whoa whoa, time out. An alert on your phone about this place?" Kibō questioned. "Professor...what's going on here? What's with the lance? Just...who are you?" Barbara asked. Rin sighed. "This place...is a pocket room within humanity's consciousness." "Consciousness? You mean we're inside someone's brain?" Barbara asked. "Not exactly. This place was created by the distortion of someone's heart. It's a person's conflicted thoughts and emotions given form." Rose explained. "You two don't seem very surprised." Rin said. "Honestly, between the time stopping yesterday, those weird ghost things and that second me, I'm open to anything." Barbara said. "Ghosts? And a second you? Wait, did you two..." Rin pondered. Rose looked intently at them. "They...they have. There's no mistaking it. They've forced their Shadows to submit and formed a Persona." she said. "Shadows? Persona? Sheesh, every answer we get just adds ten more questions..." Kibō griped. "Look, I know a lot of this doesn't make sense right now. I'll answer as much as I can for you later. But right now, we need to find Kenji." Rin said. "Kenji? What would he be doing here? I just thought he was off training somewhere." Kibō said. "This world is of Kenji's making. If he's still here, he's in serious danger. We have to move quickly." Rose said. "Just follow close behind us. I'm sorry you got dragged here. Maybe it was fate that you became my students. Or maybe by being near me...no. It doesn't matter why. My duty is in keeping you all safe. And that's what I'll do. Swear it on my lance. Now let's get a move on." Rin dictated. She and Rose walked out the door. Barbara and Kibō gave each other confused looks. "Heck of a morning, huh?" Barbara said. "Tch. Can say that." Kibō added. They followed the two women.